Spiffy:

Iffy:

Action gamers and casual X-Men fans might be turned off by the amount paid to detail.

Marvel fanboys can rejoice. Released last September, X-Men Legends took the conventional X-Men game and turned it on its head. Rather than delivering another predictable fighting game, which had become a progressively declining property for the X-Men license, Raven Studios infused the lore of the characters with the hack-'n-slash action of RPGs such as Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and Champions of Norrath. The idea worked on two levels. Fans of the franchise and of previous games using the license jumped on board. Fans of role-playing games also took interest. It was a formula that sent almost everyone home happy. The success of last year's X-Men Legends prompted Raven Studios to begin work on a follow-up.

GameSpy was fortunate enough to get hands-on with the sequel during a recent visit to Activision's offices. Overall, the pros seem to be outweighing the cons on a grand scale. One of the biggest additions to the new game is the addition of online play for PS2 and Xbox. It will serve to add an extra edge to an already multiplayer-friendly title.

X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse will follow the "Age of Apocalypse" series in the comic books. Essentially, all hell is breaking loose, and the X-Men must team up with the Brotherhood of Mutants in an uneasy truce to thwart a global takeover by Apocalypse. Naturally, tensions between camps will provide both drama and comic relief within the game. The storyline is heavily steeped in Marvel lore. As Professor Xavier's mansion is uninhabitable for safety reasons, the game sets headquarters in a variety of locales, including the old Weapon X facility, which naturally does not sit right with Wolverine.

Visually, the graphics engine has undergone a major facelift from the previous installment. There's a running joke at Activision's Southern California studios that nearly everyone who's come by to see the game in action has uttered nearly the same phrase: "That's the new X-Men Legends?" Character design has improved greatly, as players get to pick and choose from their favorite X-Men costumes from different eras. It is in the expanded levels, though, that players will see the biggest changes. Late in the process of creating the first game, Raven became much more comfortable with the game's level design and took that progress and implemented it into the sequel. The environments sprawl and accurately capture the feel of the comics.

The cinematics accurately re-create the feel of the X-Men universe. Done by the diehard X-Men fans at Blur Studios of L.A., they are a treat to watch. Blur's attention to small details, such as a split-second tense exchange between Sabretooth and Wolverine, shine the most among the fluid and lifelike animation.

As for the roster, sixteen playable characters from the X-Men -- including Bishop and Colossus, as well as the Brotherhood of Mutants -- will be available, including some which can't be divulged quite yet. We did get exclusive word, however, that Sunfire will be included in the game. Each character has their own unique attacks and techniques, just as before.